A Manner Worthy of the Lord

Tom Groelsema, Speaker

Colossians 1:9-14 | January 22, 2023 - Sunday Morning,

Sunday Morning,
January 22, 2023
A Manner Worthy of the Lord | Colossians 1:9-14
Tom Groelsema, Speaker

We do pray, God, that is our prayer, that You would glorify Your name through us, that we would walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord, that we would live a life that is fully pleasing to Christ. So do that great work in us by the power of Your Holy Spirit, through Your Word this morning. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s turn in our Bibles this morning to Colossians chapter 1, Colossians 1. We’re going to be studying together verses 9 through 14 but we’re going to begin reading at verse 3 and then read through verse 14. Colossians chapter 1, beginning at verse 3. This is God’s Holy Word.

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.”

And now our text.

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Dear people of God, when you think about the Apostle Paul, what about him most quickly comes to your mind? What is it about his life or his person that stands out to you? Well, I imagine we have a variety of answers to that question, but these are probably are some of the things that we think about in regard to Paul.

Some of us, for example, may think about him as Paul the murderer. His life before Christ, how he persecuted the Church, how he put Christians in jail, how he stood watching and giving approval to the stoning of Stephen and others. We might think about Paul that way, before coming to know Jesus.

Or we might think about Paul the missionary. That’s probably what many of us think about. We think about Paul’s dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus, his calling to be a light to the Gentiles. We think about his missionary travels, the shipwrecks that he endured, the places that he went to form city to city preaching the Gospel. We think about Paul the missionary.

Or we might think about Paul the pastor. We might think about the letters that he wrote, to the churches that he founded, and how he taught them and instructed them.

But I wonder, this morning, how many of us think about Paul the pray-er, Paul and his prayers. His prayers for the Church are sprinkled throughout his letters. They are wonderful prayers, rich prayers. In his prayers we learn about Paul’s love for the Church. In his prayers we learn about Paul’s priorities for the Church, as we hear Paul and see Paul praying and asking God to do certain things in the life of the Church.

Somebody has said before that what we are most passionate about is reflected in a few different places in our life, a few priority places. For example, what we’re most passionate about is reflected in our time. You know, you can take a look at somebody’s calendar, somebody’s schedule. You could look at mine and you could see what I prioritize, what’s important to me, what I spend my time on.

Or you could take a look at somebody’s wallet, their bank account. How we spend our money shows what is important to us.

But you could also take a look at somebody’s prayers. What is it, what are the things that people pray about? It’s like, listen to their prayers, I begin to understand this is what’s on their heart. These are their longings, these are their passions, these are their priorities and desires.

Well, our text this morning is one of Paul’s prayers. It’s, of course, his prayer for the Colossian church, and for us. From Paul, we learn how to pray, we learn what we ought to be praying for, we learn what we should be asking God to do in our lives and in the lives of others. The core of the prayer that we’re looking at this morning is this. It has this aim to it, this focus, this direction – that we would learn to walk in a manner worthy of Christ. That we would learn to walk in a manner worthy of Christ.

This ought to be our priority as it was for Paul. Of all the things that we could ask God to do in our lives, of all the things that we want Him to do in our lives, friends, this has to be at the center. God, this is what I want You to do, this is what I want You to accomplish. Help me live a life that is worthy of the Lord Jesus.

There are three things to notice in our text this morning. First of all, Paul’s prayer, then his purpose, and then finally his petitions.

So first of all his prayer. This church that Paul was writing to, the church at Colossae that he was praying for, was a unique church in regards to Paul’s ministry. This was not a church that Paul founded. It was founded by Epaphras, Paul writes about him here in chapter 1. Epaphras had visited Paul when Paul was in Ephesus. Epaphras heard the Gospel, believed the Gospel, and then took the Gospel back home to Colossae in the surrounding region and this church was formed.

Later on Epaphras comes and visits Paul as Paul was imprisoned in Rome and he came with a report about the church that became the basis for Paul’s letter. Epaphras says to Paul, “Hey, Paul, I want you to know what is going on in the church. There have been false teachers that have infiltrated the church. They’ve been bringing about some false teaching among the body, among the believers in Colossae.”

Paul begins to write this letter to them. Like a good pastor, Paul wanted to instruct the church, disciple the church, teach the church. So he pens these words. But as a good pastor, Paul also prayed for the church. I mentioned already, Paul didn’t found this church. In fact, we don’t have any evidence that Paul ever visited this church. He didn’t know these people face-to-face. He had never been in their presence. He had never met them, and yet Paul says, “I’m praying for you.” He doesn’t know who they are by name, perhaps. At least doesn’t know who they are by face. There’s a distance.

Yet Paul prayed for them, and he prayed for them with unceasing prayer. Look how Paul describes his prayer in verse 9. He says, “So from the day that we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you.” From the day that we heard. Paul mentions this a little earlier, in verses 3 and 4. He heard about their faith in the Gospel. From the day that we heard about you coming to faith in Christ Jesus, Paul says, we haven’t stopped praying. We’ve been praying and praying and praying and praying, hearing about your faith, thanking God for your faith, and now praying for your faith. We keep praying for you.

Friends, this is a great reminder of the need for persevering prayer on our part, that when we pray we need to persevere in it, keep praying. Jesus Himself taught this, didn’t He? There’s a parable that Jesus teaches His disciples that they ought to pray and never give up.

We get to that, don’t we? Sometimes we’re praying and praying and say it isn’t worth it anymore, nothing’s happening, nothing’s changing. We give up, we stop praying.

And Paul’s example here is a reminder to keep going, pick it up again, pick up those prayers again if you’ve let them go. But there’s also an encouragement here that when you see God at work, let that prompt you to pray for more blessings from God. And I mention this because so often our prayer lives are peaked or prompted by problems that we face. We need this kind of healing, we need a new job, we need help in our family, in our marriage, and people of God, those are wonderful prompts to pray, when problems arise.

But that’s not what prompted Paul to pray for the Colossian church. He said, “We have heard how you’ve come to faith. We have been hearing about how you’ve been growing in the faith, and we’re praying for more. We’re praying that God will keep working, we’re praying that God will keep maturing, that you’ll keep growing.” Evidence of grace created an upsurge in Paul and his companions for prayer.

What did he pray for? Verse 9 gives us the answer. He says, “We have not ceased to pray for you, and here’s what we’re asking of God, that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. We are praying that you would know the will of God.”

God’s will is something that we all want to know, I think. The will of God is something that we’re interested in. Right? What is His will? What is His will for marriage? Or what is His will for my career, or college? Should we adopt? Am I going to make the team? Will I recover from this disease?

We say, “Lord, I want to know Your will in these things.” God’s will in this sense is His plans. What have you decreed for my life? What have you designed for my life?

People of God, when we’re thinking about the will of God in that way, we don’t always have a very clear answer to those kinds of questions. God often works through ordinary providences. In other words, we don’t get some clear clarion call from God who we ought to marry, but God works through ordinary means, ordinary experiences, ordinary providences.

Some of our high school students. Maybe you’re wondering about college, and you’re saying, “Should I go to Chapel Hill or should I go to NC State? What’s God’s will for my life? Where should I go?” And how does God answer that kind of question? Well, what are your test scores? Or where are your friends going? Do they have your program? And yes, you know, what would be best in terms of your walk with God, but it’s often just kind of through these ordinary questions that we ask that God leads us and guides us when we’re thinking about God’s will in those terms.

But, friends, there’s another way to think about the will of God. This is what Paul is getting at in his prayer. The other way of thinking about God’s will is what his clearly revealed in His Word. It’s not his decrees, His design for my life, as much as we could say His desires for my life. His commands.

We know, for example, His will about marriage, between two believers, one man, one woman, for a lifetime. That’s God’s will. There’s no mystery to that. God’s Word lays that out for us clearly.

This is what Paul is thinking about and praying about when he says to the Colossian church, “I am praying that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will. Not asking God to answer the question who you ought to marry, where you ought to go to college, but I’m asking God to fill you with knowledge of His desires, of His commands, of His Word. I am praying that you would be filled with the knowledge of His revealed will or, to put it this way, that you would get to know God’s Word better. I’m praying that you be filled with His Word, that you would know how you ought to go about living.”

Friends, this was so important to the Colossian church because there had been teachers who had come into the church at Colossae who said, “We have something better for you than God’s Word. We have something better for you than the Gospel. We have a better spiritual experience for you. We have a better knowledge of God for you, and this is how you’ll find it,” they said, “You’ll find it through a mystic secret knowledge that comes through doing certain rituals and performing certain acts of self-denial. You’ll kind of get let in on the secret of knowing God if you avoid these things or do these things.”

That’s why Paul says I haven’t stopped praying that you grow to know God through His Word better. You don’t have to look for some secret knowledge. Go to the Word and this will tell you what the will of God is. The Bible is enough. That’s Paul’s prayer. You’ll be filled with the knowledge of His will.

Second. What’s his purpose? So why did Paul pray this? Or to, we could put it this way, to what end was Paul praying that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will?

Well, you see the answer to that in verse 10 – so I’m praying that you’ll be filled with the knowledge of His will so as, or so that, you would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. I want you to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will so that your life will be transformed. It’s not just about knowing more, Paul says. It’s really knowledge of His will leading to an obedience to His will.

We began the service this morning, our scripture meditation at the very beginning, Ephesians 4:1. Paul says something similar to the Ephesian church – I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Walk in a manner worthy of your calling. Here it is “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” Paul’s saying, “I’m praying that you live a life that matches the worth of Christ, that magnifies His name, that magnifies His renown, His reputation, that magnifies His worth.”

I wonder how you might act if you were to meet the King of England, or think back to meeting Queen Elizabeth. If you had an opportunity to meet Queen Elizabeth, to be in her presence, I wonder how you would act, what you would do, how you’d behave in her presence. I don’t know if you know this, but there’s a certain etiquette that comes along with meeting the Queen or meeting the King. If you’re meeting the Queen, you are to stand. This is how the rules go. You are to stand when she enters the room. You bow but you’re not required to do it. A lady may do a small curtsy, a man may bow his head from the neck. If you extend a gloved hand, you may touch her briefly. A firm handshake is discouraged, otherwise no touch. Don’t discuss private issues or tabloid information. It’s considered bad manners to chew gum around the Queen, put an arm around her, can’t imagine doing that, hey, there, kiss her hand, turn your back on her, or to continue to eat once she has stopped. So this is what you do if you’re in the presence of the Queen or the King.

Why so many rules? Because she’s the Queen. Right? She’s not just anyone. These are behaviors that reflect her worth.

Well, friends, Jesus is King. We’re to walk in a manner worthy of Christ. Paul goes into this. We didn’t read this far, but in verse 15 and following, the passage right after the one that we read this morning, who is Jesus? “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation… He is above all thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities… He is the head of the body of the Church… He is the firstborn from the dead… He is the resurrected Lord.”

There’s His worth. This is who we are talking about, and we’re to walk in a manner that is worthy of Him. Not worthy of us, but worthy of Him, the King, that makes much of Christ.

Paul tells us what this looks like. What is this manner that is worthy of the Lord? He gives it to us right after those words – it is a life that is fully pleasing to Him. A life that fully pleases Christ. This is how we are to walk. This is what Paul is praying for for the Colossian church and for us.

This is the kind of question that we ought to be asking as we live our lives. Every day, what would please the Lord Jesus the most? What would please Christ about my life? In this action and that action and doing this or doing that, will it please Jesus?

How transformative that would be if we lived asking that question. It would transform how we work. It would transform what we do with our downtime, how we talk, what jokes we tell, what shows we watch, what we spend our money on, what we think about who owns our own bodies, how we relate to our neighbors, how we treat our spouse and our children. Jesus, what would please You in this? It’s not my pleasure, Your pleasure.

It’s really a prayer and a call, isn’t it, to radical obedience. What fully pleases Jesus? Not partially pleases Him, not, you know, what kind of brings a bit of a smile on His face. No, what pleases the heart of Christ? What is for His pleasure, His worth, not my worth. It’s nothing less than a prayer for holiness.

Sometimes even in the church, I don’t, this is not the case at Christ Covenant, we have a pastor who’s written a book on holiness. But sometimes in the church, even in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we don’t like to talk about holiness very much. Holiness seems to, you know, it’s kind of a killjoy. I mean, that just kind of throws cold water on kind of pleasure and fun and things like that. Let’s not talk about holiness.

Or sometimes in the church we talk about holiness and almost in the very same breath somebody is going to whisper or mumble under their breath, you know, legalism, that’s legalism, that’s just law keeping.

Friends, I don’t know what else you do with these words of Paul – “That I have unceasing prayer, Colossians, for you, that you would be filled with all of the knowledge of God’s will so that you may walk in a manner worthy of Christ and that you would live a life that is fully pleasing to Him.” Sounds like holiness to me.

The measure of maturity that ought to mark believers, an unceasing prayer, “God, would You make me more like Jesus. O God, make me more like Him, let me please Christ. Lord, what would please you in this moment? What would please You in this thing? That’s what I want to know. That’s what I want to do.” Prayer, prayer, prayer for that, oh, that God would answer that in us.

Well, finally we have Paul’s petitions. He gives four specific petitions in the rest of our text here of what this life that is fully pleasing to God looks like.

Verse 10 is the first one. A life fully pleasing to the Lord is a life that is bearing fruit in every good work. Fruit bearing. It’s an image, isn’t it, that Jesus used for the Christian life, for the abundant Christian life, life that you may have to the full, Jesus says.

John 15, John writes about that abundant, fruit-bearing life when He describes Himself as the vine and we are the branches. Remember how Jesus put it? John 15:8 – By this My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and prove to be My disciples.

How do you show that you are a disciple? Bearing much fruit.

It reminds us there that bearing much fruit comes from abiding in Christ. It’s when we abide in Jesus that we abound. Abiding to abound. But must abide in Christ, or as Jesus puts it, we abide in His Word. So you’ve got to remain there, sink your roots deep into Christ, deep into His Word, that’s how fruitfulness comes. Greater fruitfulness, Jesus reminds us, sometimes comes when He prunes. That’s painful. It hurts. But all for the intention of greater fruitfulness in our life.

He reminds us that we have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit, and that bearing fruit is to our joy.

Paul, of course, speaks about this in the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is the kind of fruit bearing for every good work that we are to produce.

I remember when I was a student back at Westminster seminary in California. We had a homeless guy one time show up on campus and began to talk to one of our professors. He said to our prof, he said, “Do you guys, I don’t see much here on this campus about the gifts of the Spirit. I don’t see many gifts of the Spirit here.” And our professor was kind of quick-witted and he quickly came back to him and he said, “Well, I don’t see in you much fruit of the Spirit.” And this guy says, “Hey, brother, I’m so loaded with fruit I can hardly walk. I’m so loaded with fruit I can hardly walk.”

May it be true of us, right? Bearing fruit in every good work, so loaded with the fruit of the Spirit that we can hardly walk.

What does it look like to live a life pleasing to God? Bearing fruit in every good work.

Secondly, it’s to be increasing in the knowledge of God. This is verse 10. Increasing in the knowledge of God. Already saw Paul’s prayer for the fullness of the knowledge of God’s will, but here it’s an increasing knowledge of God Himself. As we get to know God, that is what brings about a life that is fully pleasing to God. Get to know God more and the more our lives will please Him. And of course the source for knowing God is the same as knowing His will, it’s His Word.

When we open the Bible, make this your prayer when you go to read, “God, I want to not just know more about You, I want to know you.” This is, in fact, what Paul said in the book of Philippians, “I want to know Christ. Not just know about Him, I want to know Him. We want to know God.”

C.J. Mahaney has a book called Humility. I just finished reading it. He reminds us in that book that we grow in humility by doing a few things. One is reflecting upon our sin. So we’ve got to know ourselves. That leads us to be humble. But in that book he also says it is by reflecting on God because when you know God, it throws a proper light on who we are, it humbles us, and there’s fruit then, you see, that is being born in us. Knowing God generates, leads to a life that pleases Him.

So if you want to please God, get to know Him more. Study His attributes. Study who He is, what He’s like, reflect on His promises. Dive deep into these things and God will shape you, He’ll change you.

Third thing in pleasing to God, living a life that’s pleasing to Him means being strengthened with God’s might for endurance and patience.

Verse 11 – Strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience.

Paul here, just as he does in many of his letters when he talks about being strengthened by the power of God or the might of God, is really thinking about resurrection power. The glorious might of God is power, might that was seen in the raising of Jesus from the dead. Resurrection power.

Paul says that same power that raised Christ from the dead is a power that is at work in you to help you live this life that pleases the Lord. In other words, you see, this isn’t just, what Paul is praying about in, what Paul is saying to us this morning is not just kind of pull yourself up, just work a little hard. No, Paul here prays that according to His glorious might you might be led to have all endurance and patience. I want God’s power to be at work in you.

Friends, what great power is there than that? The power that raised a dead man. The power that raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. It is power that helps us live this transformed life.

Here specifically Paul says I’m praying that you might have this power, that you would live with endurance and patience.

Endurance is the grace to bear up in faith and obedience under trials and trouble. The ability to bear up in faith and obedience under trials and trouble.

This is what the Colossian church needed. False teachers coming in, deceiving, leading people astray. I’m praying that you will endure in faith and obedience. Stick to it under these hard circumstances.

Patience is the grace to bear up and not yield to sinful responses with regard to other people. The grace to bear up and not yield to sinful responses with regard to other people.

Endurance about circumstances, patience dealing with other people. You put these two together and Paul is simply talking about spiritual stamina. I’m praying that through His glorious might God would give you spiritual stamina, stamina to stick with it spiritually, stamina to stay faithful to Christ, stamina to live a life worthy of the Lord, stamina not to give up, not to veer off, not to go in another direction, but to remain pointed and fixed and aiming toward the glory of Jesus.

Don Carson says the virtues enable the believer to survive with joy when persecuted, to triumph in self-composure and contentment when insulted, to trust God’s all wise and all gracious providence when one is suffering like Job, and when Jesus sees these virtues in us, He is well pleased. He is pleased.

One last petition. In verse 12 – Being fully pleasing to Christ means living with joy, giving thanks to the Father. With joy giving thanks.

Joyful gratitude. It’s what sets Christians apart. In fact, it is one of the things that ought to mark our life. If we could be known by something, at least this. Let’s be known that we are people who are grateful. We’re thankful. We’re people of gratitude.

I find it interesting in Romans 1 that one of the defining marks of depraved man or man without Christ, Paul says, is that they do not honor God or give thanks to Him. They’re ungrateful.

Remember Paul’s words, 1 Thessalonians 5, his famous words? He says, “This is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus, that you would be joyful always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances.”

Well, Paul in this text, he gives us the reason for thanks. Wonderful, wonderful words here. He says in verses 12 and 13 – Here’s why you ought to be thankful, for God has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.

He’s qualified you to share in His inheritance. We don’t qualify ourselves. We never could. We could never get qualified through our own living or through our own obedience. We fail. Prone to wander, we sang it earlier this morning. Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

But He qualifies us. Qualifies us for inheritance. Inheritance, of course, is all about grace. It’s always a gift.

But if there’s an inheritance that He’s qualified you for, it means you’re His child. That’s who gets the inheritance. Right? Children, heirs. Once we were not heirs, now we are heirs. Once we were not the people of God, now we are the people of God. An inheritance is waiting. He’s qualified you for that.

Paul says He’s done it in this way. Two sides of it.

First of all, He’s delivered us from darkness’s domain, from the domain of darkness. From the authority, from the mastery, from the rule, from the reign, of everything that is dark, of sin, of death and the devil. They are no longer our master. You do not have to serve them. We are not slaves. We have been delivered from this domain, this authority, dark authority.

Remember how Luther says it in his famous hymn “Might Fortress”: He breaks the power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner free.

Luther says our sins have been canceled. We are forgiven. But He also breaks the power of canceled sin. Right?

So sometimes we’re living our life and we say, “I know I’m forgiven, but it is such an overwhelming power in my life. I need to be set free from that, too.” And Paul’s saying He does. That’s what it means that He’s delivered from the domain of darkness. You are not under sin’s reign any longer if you are in Christ Jesus.

Then the positive side. We have been transferred into the kingdom of His beloved Son. We’ve been transferred. We’ve been shifted from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

I’ve been spending way too much time listening on podcasts this last month to stuff about the college football transfer portal. All these players who say, “I’m entering the portal transfer for me.” What they’re saying, of course, is I’m not playing for that team anymore. That’s done. I don’t go to that school, I don’t play for that team, I don’t wear their colors, I don’t sing their fight song, I don’t enter their stadium, I’m transferring. Everything now is for the new team, wherever they land. Everything now is for them, I’ve transferred, I’m not there anymore. I’m playing for them.

Notice again Paul says, “We’ve been transferred.” When you put your faith in Christ Jesus, I guess you enter the transfer portal. But Paul’s saying you’ve been transferred. He’s transferred you to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, to His reign, to His rule, so that you can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. With the Spirit’s help and by His grace. That’s where you belong.

Paul here at the very end of this text makes a shift for us. I think it’s important to notice. Paul’s been using throughout this text kind of present, ongoing action verbs, because it’s his way of saying, “I’m praying, Colossians, for an ongoing work of Christ in your life, that you will be bearing fruit.” It’s ongoing. It’s not like just you bear fruit once. No, that you keep bearing fruit. That you keep increasing in the knowledge of God. That you keep being strengthened with all His power. That you keep with joy giving thanks to the Father. Those are the kind of verbs he’s been using here. There’s a process, process of maturing that I’m longing and praying that God would do in your life all to the end that you’ll fully please Him and walk in a manner worthy of Christ.

He does this until the very end. At the very end of this text, he shifts to past, one-time action verbs. In other words, verbs that indicate something that happened just boom, this moment in time, back there. It’s not ongoing, it wasn’t repeated. It was just boom, once and for all. That’s what he’s doing when he says He has qualified you. Boom. Just once and for all back there. He has delivered you, boom, just at that moment in time and transferred us at that one moment.

When did that happen? Where did those things happen? Where is that one time moment event spot on the timeline when He qualified us and delivered us and transferred us?

You know. It’s at the cross and resurrection of Christ. He has done it, there when Christ died for our sins, when Christ rose from the dead. You see what Paul is doing? Paul is saying, “This prayer that I pray, that you would change, that you would increase, that you would more and more bear fruit, and all the rest of these other things,” Paul says, “I am praying all of that and it’s all grounded in what Christ did for us. It’s all grounded in the Gospel.”

The Gospel, you see, is our hope for a changed life. The reason for living a life fully pleasing to Jesus is because He lived a life that was fully pleasing to the Father. Perfectly obedient in His living, perfectly obedient in His dying. Paul says this radical transformation then comes when you know that Christ who gave Himself for you.

We’re going to sing here in just a second “All the Way My Saviour Leads Me,” and we sang just a few moments ago “help me now to live a life that’s dependent on Your grace, keep my heart and guard my soul from the evils that I face, You are worthy.” There’s what worth, “You are worthy to be praised with my every thought and deed. So O great God in highest heaven, glorify Your name through me.”

Let’s pray. O God, we do pray as Paul prayed for the Colossian church, we pray for ourselves, Lord, would You help us as Christ Covenant Church to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him. Drive sin out of our life, help us to fight it, to battle it, to repent of it and more and more and in increasing way. O God, we pray that You would help us to bear fruit, that we would increase in our knowledge of God, that we would be strengthened to endure and to be patient and that with joy we would give thanks. We praise You that You have set us free, delivering us from the domain of darkness and transferring us into the kingdom of the Son whom you love. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.